Lonesome path
by Mutantfan
Summary: Buffy is faced against a demon that has eliminated her strength and refuses help.


Buffy sighed as she sat in the Magic Box surrounded by her friends. Willow, Giles, Dawn, Anya and Tara were researching the new demon that had attacked Buffy in the graveyard only hours before. She and Xander had gone into the back room to train, but she was too preoccupied to concentrate on fighting techniques. "Xander, I don't think I can kill this thing. It creamed me tonight and it barely broke a sweat!"  
"Hey, Buffster, don't think like that. You've defeated way better than some...what did Willow call it?" "Qualmen Demon." She muttered. "Look Buffy, you'll defeat this thing then we'll all go home and tomorrow will be another day, mainly of killing things, but it'll still be a day without a Qualmen demon." She smiled at Xander's attempts to make her feel better then shook her head. "No it won't. Willow said that things' bite is lethal. Affecting balance, speed and agility, that's why I'm screwed." She lifted up her tank top to reveal a white bandage that had been soaked in blood.  
Xander's eyes grew dim, like a puppy being kicked, "Buff, we have to tell Giles, or Willow. Willow can fix it, you're gonna' be fine. We'll all help you out, I for one feel in the mood to kick some demon ass..." "It's too dangerous. Don't tell them, not until after I kill it. I'm not risking you all." "It's not your choice, Buffy!" Xander objected. "I have to tell them and we can help, you know that."  
She couldn't stop him running to the front room, he was too close to the door. "Buff's hurt." He declared. "The demon thing bit her." Everyone was looking at Buffy that way again. The 'poor little slayer isn't coping' look. She defiantly shrugged it off. "It's no big deal. Just a small bite..." "Buffy!" Willow interrupted. "You know what that things' bite does. We'll have to fig..." "No!" Buffy shouted, making poor Tara jump and drop a pile of books. "This is my fight, I won't risk you guys getting hurt."  
"Ever since you...came back you've had this whole "I can do it all by my lonesome' act. Well you can't, Buff. We're your friends and we can help. So you know what?" Xander argued. "We won't let you risk it." Xander stood rebelliously by the door. Willow joined him, then Giles, Dawn, Anya and even Tara.  
Buffy scowled. "Fine. Hurry up and research this things weaknesses and strengths. I'll be training." She stormed off into the back room and slammed the door shut. How dare they tell her what to do! She was the slayer! She picked up her satchel and filled it with weapons and took her favourite shiny sword.  
She walked out of the back room and found the others researching as though nothing had happened. She walked by them and towards the door. When she tried it, it was locked. She sighed. "It's my job, guys. My birthright, my fight, I have to do this on my own." "No, you don't." Dawn objected. "You're just shutting the rest of us out again. That bite is going to' make you vulnerable and you could die, again and I'd be alone. You're not going."  
She shook her head. "I'm sorry Dawnie, I have too." She muttered, "If this door is still locked by the count of ten then I'm breaking it down." Anya looked anxious about that prospect. It would cost money to repair it. Her money. "Maybe we should..." They all glared at her. "Okay, I'll be the only practical one. So Buffy doesn't go. Who fights the demon? A boy, a teenager, two witches who aren't speaking and an ex vengeance demon with no power, great army."  
"Spike will help." Dawn suggested. Buffy had had enough of this. "One...two...three..." Anya sighed and threw the keys over to her. "Thank you Anya. At least someone understands." "The fact that only Anya agrees with you doesn't make you realize how stupid you're being?" willow quarreled. "It's suicide, your strength will disappear and it won't matter that you're the Slayer!" Buffy looked towards Giles. "I've done it before and won. Only then I didn't have a choice." She left and the gang immediately followed her out of the door.  
"She's gone!" Xander exclaimed. "Just gone. We have to find her..."  
  
"No, Buffy's right." Giles objected. "She needs to know she can do it alone, she doesn't like how much she'd depended on you in the past. Know she feels like she's failing. This is her fight."  
"But..." Willow objected. Giles shook his head and told them to go back inside. They could do nothing but wait for her to return. "She'll thank you later." Giles promised. He knew his Slayer felt the need to prove herself. To shake off the sympathy of her friends, but she was taking a big risk. "Good luck." He muttered under his breath.  
She walked through the graveyard and felt her strength leaking away from her like a traitor fleeing from battle. It had been over three hours since she had left the Magic Box and her friends. She hadn't seen the demon anywhere. Then she spotted it by a crypt. It looked like a human, but with large tentacles escaping its body in various places, a shell on its back and no mouth.  
She took out her crossbow as she drew closer and fired it. It sliced to the right and hit the side of its shell. He grunted his disgust. "What's wrong? Shell-shocked?" History class had actually paid off for a good barb. He grunted again and charged she took out a sword and charged forward. "What? No witty come back?" It sent three of its tentacles after her and she fought them with the sword she could barely lift now. "I could always carve you a new mouth?" She dropped the sword as a tentacle slapped it away. She dived for her bag of weapons, but it grabbed her by the waist with one of its slimy tentacles. Its grunting formed a rhythm of laughter.  
She kicked it, but her legs were weak and felt like jelly. She used her last resort and bit deep in to its tentacle. It released her with shock and she fell to the ground. Her clothes torn, her side bleeding again and blood all over her mouth she looked like a primal animal. Fighting for territory. That was what she was. A slayer, an animal, fighting the forces of darkness and a slayer's strength lay deep within her, in her blood, in her ancestors. She stood up and charged forward with renewed hope.  
Right into her sword that it held in its tentacle. It plunged deep into her old wound where her own stake had been embedded. She gasped as her blood flowed down the sword and onto the handle. The demon dropped the sword and emitted a pleased grunt. Buffy fell to the ground with the sword still in her and she grabbed her crossbow from beside her. It was capable of shooting six shots in four seconds. She shot the remaining five into the demons grotesque head and it shriveled to the size of an apple and his body disintegrated She was left alone in the graveyard, bleeding copiously.  
At the other end of the graveyard a vampire smelt the blood. Rich and intoxicating. Slayer's blood. He ran through the graveyard and preyed he would be the first vampire there. As he saw the young blonde lying in the blood soaked grass, a sword piercing her side, he ran faster. He was by he side in an instant. "Buffy? What happened?" He asked as he tore the bottom of his T-shirt to tie around the wound and apply pressure.  
She smiled. 'I-I...kill...all by my self." He looked down at the apple- sized head of a Qualmen demon. Then to her already bandaged side. "It bit you? But you still killed it?" He asked a slight grin of appreciation on his face. "That's my slayer, always beating the odds." She blanked out and felt the warm inviting fingers of death tugging at her.  
  
Two days later she woke up in the hospital, surrounded by sleeping friends. It was late and only Giles was still awake. "Hey." She rasped. "Evening." Giles replied. "How are you feeling?" "Alive." She muttered. "Spike brought me here?" Giles nodded. "Apart from that you defeated it all by yourself. I'm proud of you Buffy." She smiled meekly. "I wasn't alone. I've always got the other slayers. In here." She pointed to her heart. "Guess the demon let them out. I know it was stupid to do it myself, but I had to know I could do it." "You never need to prove yourself, Buffy. Not to anyone. Just being alive is a triumph for a Slayer; being twenty-one is an even more amazing feat. We are always here for you Buffy, remember that." 


End file.
